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[630] The sense of this line is clear enough though the expression is not very accurate; in might of hand lie the issues of war, [not in words]; the time for words is in the council. A formally balanced antithesis would require for the second member “ἐν ἔπεσιν δὲ” (“τέλος”) “βουλῆς”, but this would lose in vigour something of what it gains in accuracy. In fact, “τέλος ἐπέων”, ‘the sum of words,’ is in itself little more than a periphrasis for “ἔπεα”, cf. 83 “μύθου τέλος”, just as “θανάτοιο τέλος” = “θάνατος” often. The dislocation of the sentence, such as it is, is clearly due to the prevalence of the feeling for the external form of the favourite chiastic arrangement (dat.-gen. — gen.-dat.) over that for the internal form of the antithetic thought.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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